Monday, May 16, 2011

Playing in cold process soap making

I have put lots of effort lately into making cold process soap. I have always wanted to but really afraid of the lye and how precise everything needed to be. I did it. Look out Christmas! I bet everybody is getting soap.

Shea Butter Coconut Milk Soap

I took the plunge and made a 3 lb batch of Shea Butter Coconut Milk Soap 2 weeks ago. This iphone pic is not great. The soap was not bad for a first time soap. It has some calendula in it. It is unscented. I am curious to see how the smell of the soap changes as it cures. I am wishing now that I added a light scent of something. This soap that is shown has already cured for 2 weeks. I was definitely learning. Note: I now tap the mold to make sure all of the air bubbles are out. Character!

Half a week ago, I tried again. I made 4 pounds of Cucumber Green Tea Cocoa Butter Soap. I will take some pictures after it has cured for a bit longer. It was fun, and I used real pureed cucumber, green tea, and some aloe vera juice in it. I scented it with some lavender and tangerine. It smells pretty great. I got 24 bars out of the batch.

Black Coffee Soap

This soap making is truly addicting. I then thought Sunday that I should make some coffee soap. I had some olive oil melt and pour. I mixed ground espresso beans and a few other things. I had a pint creamer carton. I recycled it into a one time mold. Coffee is supposed to get rid of bad odors. Smelly things such as fish! The coffee I made does not smell as nice as I would like it to, but it does work. It has a very strong raw coffee smell. I purposely rubbed my hand in wet canned cat food and then washed with the new soap. It worked. I heard the smell will wear off some over time, but it will not lose its effectiveness. I wrapped these already. This black soap look great up close. They look rustic and the finely ground coffee feels nice on your hands.